Thursday, August 20, 2009

KISS made its first single from the upcoming Sonic Boom album available as a streaming song on KissOnline today. My buddy also sent me an MP3 version he got somewhere, so I have listened to it a few times.

My take? I like it. I am not sure that I am eating the dog food that has been placed in front of us that 'this is a return to the 1970s KISS we know and love.' For me to buy into that, Ace and Peter would be in the band.

But the track rocks. It has a cool riff that sounds a little bit like Pearl Jam's Evenflow, and Paul Stanley throws in enough woo-yeah's and falsetto shriekings to make it sound legit. I actually thought it was great until the guitar solo.

Tommy Thayer currently occupies Ace's boots and he is the first guy to say that Ace influenced him as a guitar player long before he started working for the band in the late 80s. He has done a great job carrying the Ace torch, because...well, Ace doesn't want to do that anymore. Ace finally has a new album out and is clean and sober and...good for him.

But when Tommy's solo comes around in Modern Day Delilah, it's just...too much like a guy trying to sound like Ace. OK, I know that Thayer did many of Ace's solos on Psycho Circus, but since I am not really sure which ones, I can pretend they are all Ace. On Sonic Boom, we all know it's Thayer playing every lick.

Half of the solo is fairly original but the other half is right from the book of Ace circa Alive! and it just somehow makes me feel weird listening to it. Like I am cheating on Ace or something. Oh God I am such a tool.

Anyway, I am sure I will get used to the idea. Let me know what you think of the song. The album drops October 6 at WalMart and will be like the recent Journey CD, meaning it will be the 11 new songs, a second CD of re-recorded classics (if you want to know what I think about THAT, read this), and a short DVD of live stuff. For $12.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

I don't have a lot to say on this. The guy was 94 and some of my fellow bloggers thought he was already dead (Chris! Ha ha). But it doesn't matter. He invented multitrack recording and of course designed one of the first and most iconic electric guitars. AND he was a killer player to boot, kept his shit together and still gigged in his 90s. For any one of those reasons, he's in the history books and will live on forever.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I really wish this was a joke but holy crap it's not! Why am I just hearing about this now? Didn't Gene Simmons smell a bunch of money here? Has he sued Bruce yet? I'd imagine it's only a matter of time. Forgive me if this is really old news but I just think this is incredible.

Any of us aging rockers worried about not being able to cut it as we get older, or feeling the need to perhaps take up a different hobby so we don't seem ridiculous rocking away as we get closer to the rocking chair, dig this factoid - Ronnie James Dio turned 67 on Monday.

Dio is 7 years younger than my dad. And I gotta say, if my dad ever dressed up like Dio, I'd shoot myself.

I am sure Dio comes from some crazy healthy gene pool, and I am sure he must have partied a bit in the 70s (who didn't? - well, I was 9, so not me...) but the dude is a testament that moderation and taking care of yourself can pay off in spades as you get older.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

At the end of the work day today, I heard that John Hughes had died of a heart attack in New York, at age 59. It was kind of a busy day so I just posted an obligatory Twitter Tweet and went on with it.

But thinking about his work made me realize that he was a real talent. Yeah he was behind She's Having A Baby, but come on. Ferris Beuller, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Planes Trains and Automobiles stand out as five of the all time favorite 80s movies. Throw in Fast Times and Real Genius and I am pretty much all set on the 'teen flick' front. And let's not forget he was also behind National Lampoon Vacation...

The two I liked the most were Ferris and Planes. I emphasized with the isolated Cameron character in Ferris, and loved the comic weirdness of Planes. Like when John Candy drives the car the wrong way on the highway and in the crash scene, they turn into screaming skeletons for three seconds. Surreal touches like that were cool. I also loved the end of that movie, where the frame freezes on John Candy's smiling face. I always wondered if that was how Hughes envisioned the ending or if he came up with it on the fly in editing.

From the CNN obituary: "The script for 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' was the best script I had ever read," Steve Martin told CNN. "I asked John how long it took to write it, he said, 'I wrote it over the weekend.' The weekend. That shows you what he was able to do."

Monday, August 03, 2009

Ace Frehley has made one of his new tracks available as a streaming file (steaming pile?). The song is classic old-school Ace, just as it has been billed. Heavy guitars, Anton Fig on drums, and pretty humorous lyrics. Basically, it's about Ace being in your face because he's from outer space.

Frankly, I dig the sound of this and it makes me kind of stoked to hear the whole album Sept. 15.

Rumor has it that KISS' new 'old school' album will drop in early October from Wal-Mart. Might be called Sonic Boom, and would be a 3-disc set: the new CD, the CD of re-hashed KISS songs recorded by the new version of KISS (and released in Japan already) and a DVD.

I wrote about this a while ago here. Kind of interesting to see the winners. I think the guy who won the grand prize had a funny video but didn't really bust out any solid windmills, which I thought was the point of the contest. The runners up are just flat out weird. I don't know who the judges were but they need to stay away from the brown acid...

You can check out the winners at The Who page here, or just watch them below:

The winner:

Runners-Up:Kind of funny...

Kinda cool, but lame windmills...

WTF?....

Whatever. I think the people I put on my post blow all of these out of the water...

In other Who news, Roger Daltry announced a solo tour called the "Use It Or Lose It" tour. The idea is that the voice is a muscle and if he doesn't keep it in shape, when old Pete calls for the next Who project, Daltry's voice may be shrivelled to a whisper.

The closest he gets to my neck of the woods is Seattle, but I won't be driving up to support the cause. Tour dates are listed here.